"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
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Chapter Twenty-Five: Just A Theory
(The Monster, Pt. 3)
***
Sunlight filtered in through Nancy's window, pooling on the floor of her bedroom where the sleeping bags lay, abandoned. Rowan could feel the sunbeams on her face as her eyes cracked open, dragging herself out of the sleep she'd somehow found herself falling into despite how she thought she'd never fall asleep.
But it hadn't been a peaceful sleep—images of that place, of the monster, of Will's and Barb's corpses, of hers and Nancy's corpses, as the monster tore them apart before they rotted away, had plagued her mind, causing her to wake up several times with a scream in her throat before pure exhaustion and the adrenaline crash had her slip into darkness, until a new morning woke her up.
As she woke up, Rowan heard rustling.
Lifting herself up, she saw Nancy sitting up, a book before her as she flipped through the pages as she scanned what was on them. Scooting closer, Rowan mumbled, "Hey."
"Hey," Nancy replied distractedly, eyes still glued to the book.
Rubbing the last bit of sleep away, Rowan asked, "Did you get any sleep?"
Nancy shook her head. "No. Every... every time I close my eyes, I'm back there again, with that... thing."
She finally looked at her, and asked, "You?"
"Same here," Rowan muttered, hugging herself. "Kept having nightmares, of the monster, of... of what could have happened if we hadn't gotten out. Eventually, I just... passed out from exhaustion."
Nancy gave her an understanding look, then turned back to the book. This time, Rowan looked at it and saw what it was—a book on animals, open up on a section of predatory animals. Rowan didn't need to ask why Nancy was looking at it.
Behind them, Jonathan woke up at last, looking at them as he mumbled, "Oh, hey."
"Hey," Rowan and Nancy answered in unison.
He scooted over to them, looking at them in concern, noting the dark bags under the eyes of both girls. "Couldn't sleep?"
"Had nightmares and kept waking up until I just... passed out from pure exhaustion," Rowan answered, at the same time Nancy shook her head and spoke, "Every time I close my eyes, I just keep seeing that... thing. Wherever Rowan and I were, that place... I think it lives there."
She looked at them, continuing, "It was feeding there. Feeding from that deer. That means if... if Will and Barbara..."
Nancy's voice had trembled, had faded away, as she fought back sobs. Rowan placed a comforting hand on Nancy's shoulder, squeezing gently, to let the other girl know she was here.
